The basic concept of using a point of transaction terminal communicating with a host computer to automate credit verification as an alternative to manual verification via a voice telephone call goes back to the 1960s.
Goldman U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,246, entitled "Status Indicating System," discloses a credit verification system related to check cashing information using card reader to identify the person with the terminal on line to central station where information on the persons credit activity and check cashing activity is kept.
In February 1966, Jones U.K. Patent Specification 1,019,702, entitled "Apparatus for Use in Connection with the Sale of Articles" was published. This British application discloses a local sales terminal networked to central processing computer station and included a card reader at the terminal used for credit card reading and a TAG reading device relating to goods being sold. The TAG reading operation results in code sent to central unit for price look up (PLU) and central unit sends back description and price for printing on a sales receipt. The credit card reader provides customer credit data and the terminal communicates with the central unit which has negative file storage for checking credit card data against a "blacklist" which is now typically called a "negative file."
Although the concept of credit transaction automation or credit verification using a local terminal communicating with a remote host has been around for several decades, it wasn't until the mid-1980's that a low cost credit verification terminal was developed, as shown in Chang et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,420. This terminal promoted the widespread use of on-line credit verification by making the point of sale terminals affordable to small businesses.
POS terminals of this general type were developed for various applications, including one that integrated a wand type bar code reader for use in industrial applications like taking inventory.
Various concepts for use of a transaction terminal in the home shopping or home transaction environment are disclosed, for example, in DeAngelis U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,482, Schlafly U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,858, and Gorog U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,028, and Bianco U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,614. In each of these cases the home shopping terminal is preprogrammed with fixed program steps for automating each of a particular type of home transaction like ordering merchandise or food from a home shopping catalog or bill paying. In order to add other programs to the terminal, the program memory in the terminal must be altered or replaced, either by replacing the memory device such as a PROM that stores the application program or by downloading a new or modified program via the modem communication channel. Neither of these approaches is convenient for the home transaction environment. These approaches involve permanent loading of new or altered programs which are then utilized to operate the terminal to carry out the sequence of steps required for a particular home transaction.
It is well known in the art to use a bar code reader to enter the steps of a new program into a computer or calculator or to enter data into a computer or calculator. For example, Winter et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,247 shows the use of bar codes and a bar code reader to enter a program into the memory of a computer for subsequent execution. Musch et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,270 illustrates the use of bar codes to enter program commands or data into the memory of a programmable calculator. Awane et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,487 shows the use of bar codes to input operational commands and control information like prices into an automatic vending machine. Poland U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,058 discloses the use of bar codes to configure operation of a computer device by loading operating or program parameters into memory.
It is believed that there is a need for an improvement in home transaction terminals which makes it easy to provide new transaction programs for use by the customer without requiring steps to modify the program stored in the terminal itself.